Hair clipper



J. OSTER HAIR CLIPPER Filed Nov. 2, 1940 April 21, 1942.

Patented Apr. 21, 1942 UNITED; STATES PATENT OFFICE 2,280,342 l HAIR CLIPPER; v

John Oster, Racine, Wis; assignor to Joh n Oster H .Manufacturing Company, Racine, Wis., acorporation of .Wisconsin y i 1 Application November 2, 1940, Serial No. 364,058

.2 Claims. c1; 30-l96) This invention relates to improvements in hair clippers and refers particularly to clippers of the type shown in Patent No. 1,956,042 issued to John Oster April 24, 1934. i

In clippers ofthis type the body provides a housingfifor the motor and the driving 'instruf mentalities as well asa handle for theclipper. The cutter assembly; which consists of, cooperating toothed movable and stationary blades, is mounted on the frontend of the body with its movable blade innermost soas to be connectible to the pivoted driving lever whichprojects from the body. l I;

For convenience inhandling the clipper during use, the cutter assembly isdisposed at an angle to the axis of the body. p

The driving instrumentalities through which the motor isconnected with the pivoted driving lever are housed withina cavity in the forepart of the body; The open" top of this cavity is closed by a cover plate-which projects forwardly to will appear as the description proceeds, this inventi'on resides in the novel construction, combination-and arrangement of parts substantially as hereinafter described,,an'd more particularly defined by the appended claims, it being understoodthat such changes in the precise embodiment of the hereindisclosed invention may be made as come within the scope of the claims.

N The accompanying drawing illustrates two complete. examples of the physical embodiment of-the invention constructed in accordance with thebest modes so far devised for the practical plate per se;

form a guard having its front edge closely adjacent to the back face of the-cutter assembly.

The cutting edge or toothed portion of the blades projects beyond the plane of this cover plate and by virtue of the angle at which the cutter assembly is mounted, a shallow pocket is formed in which the hair'accumulates as it is cut.

Manufacturing tolerances necessitate the maintenance of a substantial clearance space between A the front edge of thecover plate and the movable blade. Hence, thehairaccumulating in this pocket tended to pack and wedge between the cover and the blade and as a consequence, an appreciable quantityof hairfwould pile up on top of the blades to obstruct the operators'view of the cutting edge. 1

While the accumulated hair could be brushed off or removed, the necessity for constantly stopping to clean awaytheobstruction was obviously objectionable.

It is, therefore, an "object of this invention to provide simple practical means for preventing the objectionable accumulation of hair by precluding the damming actionresponsible for its packing of hair between the front edge of the cover and the adjacent rear-surfaceof the blade assembly without requiring closer tolerances and without in anywise altering the accepted design of the clipper.

Figure 4 is a side view similar to. Figure 2 bu showing aslightly modified version of themvention; and z ,Figure 5 is a perspective view of the cover plate. employed in the modified construction shown in Figure 4.

Referring now more particularly to the accompanying drawing in'which like numerals 'indicate like parts, the numeral 5 designates the main bodyof the clipper, which, as is customary, provides a housing for the electric motor and forms a handle by which the clipper is grasped. The forepart 6 of the housing has .a cavity 1 opening to its top surface to provide a gear case in which driving instrumentalities (not shown) are housedto connect the motor with a driving lever 18. i This lever is fulcrumed in the forepart of the housing and projects beyond its front wall 9 fordriving' engagement with the movable blade of the cutter assembly.

The front wall 9 of the housing is inclined to the planartop wall [0, and the cutter assembly, indicated generally by the numeral II, is hingedly'mounted on this fulcrumed front wall in a 3 manner illustrated in Patent No. 2,182,597 issued to John Oster December 5, 1939. i It is sufficient to :note here that. the cutter assembly is so mounted that its stationary blade [2 is fixed to pressure against the stationary blade by a ten- With the above and other obj ectsin view which a;

sioning spring l2 which has its free edge disposed .in agroove l3 parallel to the cutting edge of the blade assembly so as to guide the movable blade for reciprocatory motion, and that the cutting edge portion of the assembly projects beyond the plane of the top Wall ID.

The open top of the cavity 1 is closed by a cover plate I4 secured to the top wall l by screws l5. In addition to closing the open top of the cavity 1, this cover plate extends forwardly to provide a guard for the vibratory driving lever, and to augment its function in this respect, flanges l6 extend down from its sides.

The front edge I! of the cover plate terminates close to the adjacent surface of the movable blade l3, but, as will be readily appreciated, cannot be brought into direct contact with the blade due to the necessity for maintaining manufacturing tolerances.

As a consequence, there has always been a clearance space between the front edge of the cover plate and the movable blade. This space, being located at the juncture of the two angularly disposed pocket walls formed by the cover plate and the toothed portion of the blade assembly, is so positioned that the packing of hair into the space was inevitable. Such lodging of the hair at the bottom of the pocket dammed the flow of hair and caused an appreciable accumulationwith the result that the operators view of the cutting edge was obstructed.

To overcome this objection a novel barrier is provided which closes the clearance space without necessitating closer tolerances and without altering the accepted design of the clipper and especially the cutting blade assembly. The barrier perferably consists of a self-adjusting loop [8 of thin highly resilient sheet metal at the gap between the front edge I! of the vcover and the adjacent surface of the movable blade. This loop is arranged to contact .substantially the entire width of the top surface of the movable blade 13 along a line lying between the teeth thereof and the groove I3 for the free end of the tensioning spring with a light pressure so as not to interfere with reciprocation of the movable blade but sufiicient to positively prevent hair from entering said gap. This loop of sheet metal may be secured in difierent ways, but is preferably fixed to the undersurface of the cover plate by clamping a rearward extension I9 thereof between the undersurface of the cover plate and a clamping bar 20. Screws 2| passed through the aligned apertures in the cover plate and this rearward extension and threaded into the clamping bar secure the same in place.

Another expedient manner of preventing hair from wedging between the front edge of the cover plate and the movable blade is illustrated in Figures 4 and 5. In this embodiment of the invention the movable blade has a longitudinal groove 22' formed therein into which a downturned flange 23 on the front edge of the cover plate projects.

The arrangement of the parts is such that although running clearance is maintained, an abrupt 'wall surface is presented to the hair sliding across the top of the movable blade to deflect the same outwardly and, thus, prevent the objectionable packing action.

From the foregoing description taken in connection with the accompanying drawing, it will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art that this invention provides a valuable improvement in hair clippers as it eliminates the objectionable view obstructing accumulation of hair on top of the cutter blades.

What I claim as my invention is:

1. In a clipper of the character described: a body having a cavity in its forepart in which the blade driving instrumentalities are disposed and from which a blade driving lever projects forwardly; a cover plate closing the open top of the cavity; a cutter assembly comprising stationary and movable blades; combined tensioning and guiding means acting on the movable blade inwardly of its toothed edge for maintaining the cutter assembly under cutting tension and for constraining the movable blade to reciprocatory motion in a direction parallel to its toothed edge; means mounting the cutter assembly on the forepart of the body with the movable blade connected to its driving lever and closely adjacent to the front edge of the cover plate, said cover plate and the cutting edge portion of the cutter assembly being disposed at an obtuse angle to each other and forming a shallow pocket in which hair tends to accumulate during the cutting action; and a thin flexible metal bridging member carried by the cover plate and having a self-adjusting portion snugly engaging the adjacent surface of the movable blade between its toothed edge and said tensioning means to prevent accumulating hair from packing and wedging into the clearance space between the cover plate and the movable blade.

2. In a clipper of the character described: a body having a cavity in its 'forepart in which the blade driving instrumentalities are disposed and from which a blade driving lever projects forwardly; a cover plate closing the open top of the cavity; a cutter assembly comprising stationary and movable blades; combined tensioning and guiding means acting on the movable blade inwardly of its toothed edge for maintaining the cutter assembly under the proper degree of cutting tension and for constraining the movable blade to reciprocation in a direction parallel to its toothed edge; means mounting the cutter assembly on the forepart of the body so that the cover plate overlies said combined tensioning and guiding means and with the movable blade connected to its driving lever and closely adjacent to the front edge of the cover plate, said blade assembly having its cutting edge extending outwardly past the forward edge of the cover plate to define an obtuse angle with the cover plate and so as to form a shallow pocket in which hair tends to accumulate during the cutting action; and a metal bridging member carried by the cover plate and having a flexible self-adjusting looped portion snugly engaging the adjacent surface of the movable blade between its toothed edge and said tensioning means, said looped ,portion engaging the top surface of the movable blade with a light spring tension so as not to interfere with reciprocation of the movable blade but sufficient to prevent-accumulating hair from packing and wedging into the clearance space between the cover plate and the movable blade. JOHN OS'I'ER. 

